I'm baaaaacccck!

A view of Shui Hui Park from outside the entrance.

So for the first time in what feels like forever, I decided to write a blog post today.  Then I stared at the screen for an eternity, browsed Pinterest (‘ve finally figured out the navigations of that), searched this, watched that, then flipped back to my writing.  What do I write about?  It has been almost a year since I wrote any blog, and I feel like I have so much to say (and yet nothing of great import) what do I say?

In April, I moved to teach in China and that has been really interesting.  Honestly, I love the people where I live – they are super friendly, really inclusive and a lot of fun to be around.  Interestingly enough, it’s a lot easier to make friends here than it is in the United States.  My one of a handful of problems, however, is the language barrier.  My friends here definitely have a good grasp on English, but every once in a while you can see their eyes kind of gloss over as their comprehension fails them.  And that’s much more than I can say for my comprehension of Mandarin.  I mean it’s a lot better than when I first arrived here nearly four months ago, but it’s not conversational level by any means.  If the school where I work would have kept their promise, I’m sure my comprehension would be a lot better.  But everything I’ve learned, I’ve taught myself.

Time is sure flying though.  I am almost to the point where I have just two months left, which is kind of a pity because I’m really starting to rock as a teacher (even if the kids can’t see all the hard work and thought that I put into everything).  After months of dilly-dallying, I finally have the SMARTBOARD program installed in my computer.  And let me tell you, my lesson plans have improved significantly.  The kids love learning by games, and I’m kind of able to create mini-computer games that they play.  I mean they’re not super advanced, but they are still a lot of fun and make them think.  Kind of like the super simple, yet thought provoking, computer games like Reading Rabbit – again maybe not quite that advanced, but I think I could come up with something really similar.

However, I am really looking forward to going back home.  I miss my friends and my normal life there.  While I am definitely making the best of this adventure and enjoying the culture, I just miss home.  It’s pretty natural.  And of course with there only being two months left, I’m starting to freak out.  While the pay here isn’t wonderful, it’s good for here, and it is a job.  I’m, once again, starting the process of job hunting and it sucks.  I feel like I will be perpetually in a state of looking for a job, but I am hoping this next one is one that will stick for a while.  Well, I think that was a good re-introducing-myself-back-into-the-world-of-blogging-for-now update, right?

#China #Rugao #adventuresinchina #Mandarin #languagelearning #esl #tefl #tesl #smartboard #teachingabroad

I'm 1 in 2 Million: Are You?

Hi, I’m one in two million and I am looking for the other (approximately) 3,500 people in the world like me.  Now, if we factor in that only about 35% of the world has access to the Internet, I will be lucky if I am able to reach 1,125 of you.  I’m not even going to try and factor in and account for all the different languages out there (the translator button should be in the upper right hand corner).

Anyway, you probably are curious as to whether or not you qualify as one of my special 1,125 people out there.  Well, I am looking for people with rare genes – well, specifically one gene.  I am looking for people who have the awesome ability to say that they have one of the following:  Cleidocranial Dysplasia(CCD), Cleidocranial Dysostosis, CLCD, Dysplasia Cleidocranial (someone thought they were being clever here, I think), or Marie-Sainton Disease.

Basically, these are all terms for a rare genetic bone disorder that I also happen to have.  I am sort of a scientifically minded person, and am very frustrated that there isn’t a lot of literature with regards to this disease.  Surely someone else would like some new and updated information too?  At least for the sake of curiosity!  Now, I get that this isn’t exactly a prevalent world disorder, so it’s not a hot topic to do research on; however, I am SO curious how other people are living and to what degree this effects them (and also to make sure you are taking lots of Vitamin D). 

So if you could, please pass this around so we can find each other.  I want to hear about your life stories, what you’ve had to go through, any “cool tricks” you can do (our shoulders can be pretty freaky), if you’ve had to do extensive orthodontic surgery (which is a bitch and a half).  Also, it would be nice to have someone to compare and contrast the little things that we may experience (random bone pain, anyone?).  It would be much more interesting to get some real life info from people rather than reading case reports (snooze). 

How To Crochet: A Possibly Instructional Follow Along With Pictures For Beginners

Hello friends!

Inspired by my friend who wants to learn how to crochet, I've decided to do a step-by-step instruction of how to get started.  What you are going to learn how to make is a set of potholders.  Potholders are something easy to practice with so you can get the hang of crocheting.  If you really want to make a blanket, I recommend crocheting at least one pair, as I mentioned, to get the hang of it.  The more you crochet, the looser your stitches may become - it just is a part of the practice.

Also, I am going to slightly cheat.  I really want to be approachable for beginners, but I'm bad at describing how to hold a hook and how to hold the yarn, so I've hyperlinked the some directions for your convenience.

You will need yarn and a crochet hook.  Typically for something like a potholder, you will use a G size hook (or 6-4.25mm).  The type of yarn that I normally use for potholders is Red Heart Yarn, which is your basic, bountiful yarn found in most yarn carrying shops.  For potholders, you don't need a nice or expensive yarn, especially if this is your first project and you just want to try your hand at crocheting.

Picture A

First make a slipknot.  Then stick your crochet hook through the loop and tighten it slightly.  You don't want to make it too tight; you want to be able to move the loop up and down the crochet hook.  (Picture A).

Wrap your yarn around your crochet hook and pull through (Picture B).  This first stitch you have done is what is known as a chain (Picture C).  When you find patterns online or in books, etc., it's usually abbreviated as chain.  Chain 26 (Picture D), this is going to be your "base line" from which you will make everything else.

              Picture B                   Picture C                            Picture D                           

 Now take your crochet hook and count back two chains and stick your crochet hook through.  Wrap the yarn around the hook, and pull it through the line.  You should have two loops over your crochet hook (Picture E).  Wrap the yarn around your crochet hook again, and pull it through both loops to make a single loop on your hook (Picture F).  You have just completed your first single stitch (ss) (Picture G). YAY!!

   

Top Left: Picture E, Top Right: Picture F, Bottom Left: Picture G                                                                                

 Continue with your single stitch in a circle until you can fold your potholder over.  Eventually, you will want to flip your potholder inside out so the pretty lines are on the outside (Picture H).  When you fold your potholder over, the two edges should come together seamlessly, you shouldn't have to stretch it to fit (Picture I).  From here you can either stitch it up, or add an embellished top to place store them on hooks.  I have both listed below.

Picture H                                                                                        Picture I

Top to Bottom: Picture J, Picture K                                                                     Top to Bottom: Picture L, Picture M 

Finishing:

From the top, take your yarn down the length of the potholder, up halfway and then cut.  If you have made the embellished top, pull the yarn through the last loop.  Put your crochet hooks through the top two single stitches, wrap your yarn around and pull through.  Zig-zag down, until you have successfully stitched up your potholder.  When you get to the bottom, fasten it off by making a loop, then pulling the stitch through.  It's like you are making a chain or a single stitch, but pulling the yarn all the way through.  Now take your end piece and pull it on the inside of your potholder.

As you can see from the pictures of the final ones I posted, I use these all the time.  They are very durable and long lasting.  I'm fairly sure some of the ones my mom made are around 25 years old.  You can also use more than one color for fun effects, or for holidays.  My orange and brown ones are my Thanksgiving potholders.  They also make great housewarming gifts or stocking stuffers for parents.  Oh, and in case you didn't figure it out, the pink one I used to show you how to crochet a potholder is much smaller than the actual one you will be making.  So, besides the first few photos the photos are not to scale.  Thanks!

Feel free to ask any questions.

-Stay creative!

   

 

Insanity and Suicide Around the World

So I've decided to post about "The GM Genocide" because it 1) really needs to get out there and 2) I don't know how much people are talking about this (I haven't heard anything on the local news at least).  This kind of further proves (to me anyway) how business tycoons put business first and people second.  It's one of the major reasons why our current health care system fails.  Businesses don't care about people, they care about making money.  (Maybe you've heard about the recent uproar concerning the CEO of the Breast Cancer Foundation - she just took a 60% pay increase, she now makes well over $600,000, while people like me are struggling to get over 12k per year.)

I would really like it if people could comment on this and we could get a discussion going, maybe people write updates or something, but I know I'm kind of dreaming big for my little blog.  To summarize - briefly - what the article says that big businesses are trying to get countries (India) to grow GMO products (genetically modified organisms).  Plants are basically manipulated to grow "bigger and better" and some are supposed to be bug resistant.  What happens more often than not when you genetically modify foods is that they won't grow - just because we think we understand genetics and how things work isn't necessarily accurate and doesn't mean we should be changing things around.

Small time farmers in India are borrowing money from people to purchase these expensive GMO seeds, instead of farming the traditional way.  What is happening is that they are getting a whole bunch of seeds that won't grow.  If the crops don't grow, that means that these farmers aren't getting paid.  Now I know most of us understand what happens when you don't get paid, but imagine having a larger family to support.  Everyone is working in the fields, and trying to earn money, but it doesn't work.  That is a lot of unneeded stress in life, so how do you escape?  Well, apparently THOUSANDS of farmers are killing themselves each month because they see no other escape.  It's becoming so commonplace that people aren't even bothering to even attempt to help or save them.

What are the big, pro-GMO people saying and how are they reacting?  They are saying it's just the stress of living in the country.  It's typical for people to kill themselves and it's normal.  WHEN IS KILLING YOURSELF NORMAL?  People need help, not to be dismissed.  What's worse is after the husbands have killed themselves, a lot of wives take over the farm and try to get it to grow, but are in such a big debt, they too kill themselves.  And guess what that does.  It leaves kids parentless and a "burden" to other family members.  It seems to me like it's a vicious cycle, ya know?

I'm not saying let's rally the troops and get involved (unless that's what you want to do).  I just want you to be informed of what's going on around the world.  Often times we get censored from what's going on worldwide, and how big businesses is kind of running (and ruining) everything.  People in power will typically put themselves and their money first; it's like they forget other people outside of their little bubble exist.  But everyone around you has real-world experiences and lives, ya know?  Thank god for the digital age.  Now we can inform each other of what's going on and hopefully be proactive about it.

Again, I hope that you comment or discuss below, because that would be pretty cool, and I would like to get other people's views and opinions.

Anti-Fluoridation: Portland, 2013

Hi,

My name is Jackie and I am anti-fluoridation, and here's why:

I do believe that fluoridation is a good thing to help the people who can't afford good dental care, HOWEVER, by fluoridating the water we are not solving the problem.  Instead, this is what we would be doing:

Pretend you have two flower boxes.  One has some old soil, and the other has new soil.  The flowers planted with the new soil will be growing strong and healthy; truly beautiful plants.  The ones in the old soil grow up a little scraggly, a little off color, not as tall or as full as the plants in the other box.  So what do you do to fix the ones in the other box?  Do you put a little nutrients in the water to help them grow a little stronger?  You can, but the soil itself won't be fertile, so the plants in the old soil may just appear a little better.  They won't actually be that much healthier.  What you need to do is get to the root of the problem.  Change the soil so the plants can grow and nourish.

I am basically ripping and condensing this analogy from an article I recently read in class (Levels of Racism: A Theoretic Framework and A Gardener's Tale, by Camara Jones).  You can't fix the main problem (poor dental health) by painting a gloss over it, putting a pretty picture up, however you want to imagine this.  You have to go to the root of the problem, which in this case is there are two parts.  One is insurance coverage, affordability and quality.  We, as a country, need to figure out how to provide better quality insurance and easily accessible insurance to those who do not have it.  The ACA will help by mandating that people get insurance next year.  But the type of coverage isn't specified, and most people that have insurance have to pay separately for dental and  vision.  The biggest problem is that the health care facilities and providers treat health and people like business, not like people.  This probably won't change any time soon, but with baby steps we can maybe get there?

The second biggest issue is our food sources in America.  It is often that processed and unhealthy food items are promoted, and the ones that are high in sugars and other bad things are the ones that affect your dental health.

So instead of fluoridating our water, we need to find the root and try and fix that.  But there are other reasons that I will be voting no.  Multnomah County is saying that it is fluoride, when it is in fact, not.  It is a chemical compound including such chemicals as mercury and lead.  It is written right in the bill proposal, but the advertisements don't let you on to that little tidbit of information.

They also don't inform you about the costs that are going to accompany fluoridation if the bill passes.  There will be huge machines built, plus the ongoing costs of providing "fluoride," the costs of labor to keep the machines running, etc.  How is this going to get paid for?  Taxes, water increase, etc.  I don't think we are in a place where this is necessary, and I believe that the money that they are going to use on this fluoridation process could be spent on providing better care and making quality foods more affordable, or something.

Most of the other Westernized countries don't have fluoridated water.  Most of the major cities in the US promote it, but they don't really see a huge decrease in tooth problems.  It is something like a 5% decrease in 5 or 7 years.  That's not really that big of a difference and that also proves to me that it's not getting to the root of the problem.  We need to figure out something else because clearly this isn't the way to do it.  And besides, by addressing the root issues it will probably also promote overall healthier lifestyles and outcomes for people (like type 2 diabetes and CVD), which are other major health concerns for people in the US right now.

I encourage you all to vote "no," because while fluoridation is seemingly a good idea, there are much better ways to treat this dental issue.  The other ways could result in a better long term success rate than adding chemicals to our delicious drinking water.

http://www.cleanwaterportland.org/?gclid=CIS3yOX4oLcCFadxQgodxzEARQ

Mayan Apocalypse: Philosophy of the Mayan Religion

Dear readers,

I would like to consider myself a semi-expert on ancient Mayan culture.  It is what I went to school for and what I like to read about constantly in books, online articles, magazines, etc.

Like many of my friends and colleagues, maybe even some of you constant internet visitors, I am quite sick of reading about the "Mayan Apocalypse" and how we are all going to die in some sort of Christian like end of days time.  The Mayan religion says nothing of the sort; what is currently believed by most people (end of days) is purely a misinterpretation of a calendar.  For example, we don't go crazy on January 31st every year just because our calendar ends, right?  The Mayan calendar just happens to be 144,000 days long (aka Long Count) during this particular cycle (Bak'tun).

Here is an excerpt from the Archaeology November/December 2012 issue.  I think this will help clarify and explain the basics concerning this time in the Maya religion.

“2012 marks the completion of a cycle of 13 Bak’tuns, corresponding to 5,125 years and its meaning is fundamental in Maya mythology.  Rather than marking the end of a period, 2012 represents the BEGINNING of a new era given that calendric cycle changes are an opportunity for positive renewal, according to Maya philosophy…

13 Bak’ tun

On December 21, 2012 we’ll celebrate the end of the Oxlajuj B’a’tun or 13 Bak’tun and the start of a new era that should be seen as an opportunity for positive renewal to generate changes in our society and human nature in general.  This is the Maya philosophy and is based on the knowledge and interpretation of the legacy left by the ancient Maya in their calendars. 

Measuring time has always been central in Maya Cosmology.  The Long Count was one of the calendars bused by the ancient Maya, especially to record important historical events.  This time measuring system consists of counting the days from an initial date or <<year zero>>, measured according to five periods (K>in, Winal, Tun, K>atun and Bak’tun) based on a vigesimal system.  The greatest period, the Bak’tun, consists of 144,000 days.

The initial date of the Long Count was recorded by the Maya in several monuments…The date was not recorded as 0.0.0.0.0, but as 13.0.0.0.0, and corresponds to day 4 Ajaw on the Tzolkin Calendar and 8 Kumk>u on the Solar Calendar or Ja’ab.  According to the inscription at Quirigua, the initial event of the Long Count can be interpreted as a creation, expressed metaphorically as the positioning of three scared stones by a pair of creator gods.

The fact that the starting date is 13.0.0.0.0 indicates that this is, at the same time, the date when a previous cycle ended.  From this data, the Long Count is then considered to be the measurement of cycles of 13 Bak’tuns, ie 1,872,000 days (5,125.26 Gregorian years).  The end of the cycle that began on August 11, 3114 BC, will be December 21, 2012, which in Maya connotation is 13.0.0.0.0 4 Ajaw 13 Kankin…

Much has been said about the end of this cycle, once it reaches the 13 Bak’tun, often with an apocalyptic connotation.  However, for the ancient Maya this didn’t represent the end of the Long Count or the end of the world.  This can be proven by the nature of interpretations of the Tortuguero monument and by two inscriptions Cobá, which recorded Long Count dates far greater than the cycle of 13 Bak’tuns.

The 13 Bak’tun is not to be confused with the catastrophes of other Mesoamerican cultures’ mythologies, such as the <<Era of the Suns>> of the Aztecs or the failed creations narrated in the Popol Vuh.  Either way, the meaning of these myths is not focused on disasters that wiped out humanity, but in the social and spiritual transformations, that occurred.”  - Credits Counterpart International, Archaeology November/December 2012.

So to summarize - no apocalypse.  It is like an ascension to a higher plane of existence, but consciously not on a subconscious level.  I've read somewhere that the Mayans believe that everyone in the world will awaken to this new consciousness, and honestly it is something that I hope for.  People need enlightenment and need to be more open minded, but also realize that it will take hard work in order to get there...anyway before I go off on a tangent, I just thought I should tell people whats up, and hopefully not too many people will go bat-shit-crazy on the 21st.

A Letter to the Biebs...aka Justin Bieber

Dear Justin Bieber: aka The Biebs/The Biebster,

I have a bone to pick with you and your new song, "Beauty and the Beat," even though it's slightly catchy.  It would be obvious to point out and discuss the shallowness of how all you need is a beauty and a beat (really?), so instead I am going to point out the flaw in your "party like it's 1312" idea.  First of all, why?  Do you want an incurable disease?  Particularly the ever popular neural degenerative diseases?  You probably wouldn't get them though, because there were some wars being fought in places and since you wouldn't be able to sing your way out of the situation...well, you can use your imagination...If you were to assess the party from more of a fashion/mainstream/elitist point of view, it's an interesting choice.  Very "Game of Thrones" fashion-esque.  Can't condemn you on that I suppose; I find it pretty cool, but I don't know about the dances.  Did you know Templars disbanded in 1312?  Such a crazy year to party in!  Maybe I agree with your choice after all.  Neat idea.  Keep them coming.

-Jackie

P.S.  "off" is one syllable, not two.  So don't say owwoff...it's weird.  Thanks.

#JustinBieber, #Bieber